Why you should travel to Cuba from Cambodia

The Cuban Ambassador to Cambodia Liurka Rodriguez Barrios has explained why now a is a great time to travel to Cuba from Cambodia in a lunchtime interview with Khmer Nights. 

Despite an almost 50-year embargo against the country from the US, Cuba is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. However, for various reasons such as distance and cost, few people visit from Cambodia. 

The ambassador stated that prior to the pandemic there had been intense interest from a number of local travel agencies, but that these plans had been quashed by Covid-19.

Things though are improving, at least slowly, with Cuba fully reopening to tourists on November 15th and the country now being 80 percent vaccinated, exclusively through four Cuban-made vaccines, all of which are recognized in Cambodia. Three of the vaccines are also scheduled to receive World Health Organization (WHO) approval.

To read about our trip to the Indonesian Embassy click here.

How and why to travel to Cuba from Cambodia?

While Cuba is literally on the other side of the planet and has an 11-hour time difference with Cambodia, traveling to the country is not nearly as hard, or expensive as one might think. 

Currently, the two most accessible routes involve flights from Phnom Penh to Moscow or Paris, then a direct flight to Havana. And while flight prices often do fluctuate, a return trip can cost as little as $600. This is obviously more expensive than regional jaunts, but with the cheapness of traveling through Cuba, it’s still a viable travel option for the adventurous-minded. 

Why travel to Cuba? Cuba has beautiful beaches, jungles, epic scenery, friendly people, decent food, and some of the best drinks in the world. And of course for the history buffs out there, more revolutionary sites than you can shake a stick at! Need a Che t-shirt, or hat? This is ground zero. 

Imports and Exports – Cuba to Cambodia

While the main focus of the meeting was related to touristic opportunities between the two countries, bilateral trade was also discussed, with Ambassador Liurka Rodriguez Barrios explaining the many areas in which the two countries could cooperate. 

In 2020, Cuba announced the biggest shake-up in the economy of the country since the revolution, with not only a number of industries previously reserved for the state being opened to private enterprise, but also the rules on foreign investment in the country being severely liberalized. Cuba now allows wholly-owned foreign enterprises, where previously all foreign investments had to be done as a joint-venture with a Cuban state-owned entity. 

Cambodia imported around $75,000 worth of goods from Cuba in 2019, while exporting around $112,000 during the same period.

Cuba and Cambodia – a historical friendship

Cuba and Cambodia first established diplomatic relations in April of 1960, around a year after the victory of the revolution, and have remained strong ever since. Cuba was one of a handful of Eastern Bloc nations that recognized the Hun Sen government of the Peoples Republic of Kampuchea, rather than the UN-recognized Khmer Rouge government during the civil war of the 1980s.

Things have changed slightly since the fall of the wall, but Cuba still offers a number of scholarships to Cambodians from poorer backgrounds to study medicine and other subjects in the communist state. 

So, while we might not yet see hordes of trade and travel between the two countries imminently, if the ambassador has her way things can only get better, as the world drifts towards the “new normal”.

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